Frequently Asked Questions

Is TWB like Doctors Without Borders?

Yes and No. Teachers Without Borders, like Doctors Without Borders, is designed to alleviate suffering. If there is a medical crisis in the short or long term, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontiers, or MSF) sends physicians to communities worldwide that lack medical infrastructure or are in desperate need of additional medical assistance.

Brains are evenly distributed around the world. The key is to help unleash them, connect them, and share them. Volunteers in the field have created every program TWB currently promotes. We avoid the notion that all help or answers come from the west or the outside, broadcast to those needing help or answers. While our focus may, on occasion, involve sending teachers from one region to another (For example, a twb-Nigeria mentor traveled to Rwanda to convene a conference of colleagues seeking assistance), more often we empower the teachers that are already in the region to gain access to professional development and teaching resources in order to help them become effective?

What is the core audience for Teachers Without Borders?

TWB’s website targets teacher leaders and mentors, foundations, and individuals interested in supporting the capacity-building process. TWB can track all registered users and inquiry traffic at the TWB site and has access to all new user information inputs in the TWB membership database, which allows for access to users’ backgrounds. The profile of a TWB member reflects diversity. We do attract high-level teacher leaders, many of whom seek connection and the ability to be a mentor.

How do you support your members?

TWB provides its members with tools, advice, structure, support, training…. all of which are intended to enhance the quality of their professional life. Our value comes not so much from what we “deliver,” but from the projects and programs the members themselves develop. In short, the members support each other. If a community of teachers requests particular curricula, TWB will connect this group of members with another group of members that has experience in developing and using such curricula. If TWB members experience a national disaster that hinders teachers’ ability to serve students, TWB will solicit help from other members to address the challenge as a global community. In short, TWB supports its members by helping to restore dignity, in practical ways, to the teaching profession.

What are the benefits of joining TWB?

Principally, TWB members receive the benefit of affiliation. They sign up because they want to be a part of something, make a difference, and cause change, and TWB allows them to pursue those objectives. Many teachers join because they want to learn and make a contribution to the world, not to “get” something from us.

Beyond the intrinsic desire to work towards change, members join to gain access to free tools, free courses, and opportunities that will help them connect, create and collaborate immediately with other teacher members worldwide. Members play a central role because each member possesses an important voice that guides TWB’s efforts as a demand-driven organization.

Where does TWB get its content?

In two words, the answer is: “our members.” Because TWB was created for teachers, by teachers, its website contains an array of content geared towards multiple backgrounds and cultures. We ascribe to the power and impact of Open Educational Resources – free, high-quality content available for remix, reuse, and translation, provided the user attributes the source to its author. Numerous TWB volunteers are currently working to translate already posted curriculum into different languages to allow for wider access to curricula.

Internships and Volunteering

TWB has an internship selection process that identifies the most capable and motivated students to join the TWB team. The benefits of such a process has led to the creation, development, and deployment of Teachers Without Borders programs that support teacher leaders around the world.

What is your non-discrimination policy?

Teachers Without Borders prohibits discrimination against teachers based upon the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected right.

Teachers Without Borders is firmly committed to a policy of equal opportunity in all aspects of employee relations, including employment, salary administration, employee development, promotion and transfer.

As a 501c3, non-profit and non-denominational organization, we are not permitted to, nor do we engage in, lobbying functions regarding political positions at home or abroad. We do promote, however, the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights by articulating and defending its values within the context of our international work.

Teachers Without Borders reserves the right to terminate its agreements with its own members and partners whose non-discrimination policy and/or whose individual or collective actions are inconsistent with such values articulated here and in our mission statement.